


Freaks Like Me

by HearthsideLullaby



Category: Harry Potter - Fandom, Naruto
Genre: Author Taking Liberties, Crossover, Not Beta Read, Unreliable Narrator
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-08-29
Packaged: 2021-03-07 03:01:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26179903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HearthsideLullaby/pseuds/HearthsideLullaby
Summary: Naruto was a monster, but that wasn’t all. Even those who didn’t see him as the fox couldn’t explain some of the things that happened around him. So yes, he was a monster, but he was also a freak.The trio that ran the All Odd curiosity shop didn’t seem to think so.
Comments: 5
Kudos: 67





	Freaks Like Me

**Author's Note:**

> I own nothing, this was created and posted on a whim, yada yada, typical fanfiction words.
> 
> In all seriousness, I have not posted anything in years. I was never all that good at writing and my style swings wildly, so this will be wacky. But fanfiction is in general tacky, so eh.

•

It was sort of an accident, as many things were in his life.

He had ducked into the unassuming and musty stall as the angry woman stormed past, shouting about the demon brat running her linens. 

Many gave her sympathetic glances and a few began muttering about the boy, the demon. He heard everything they said. 

“And what do we have here?” a female voice asked lightly. 

He darted out of the stall, away. He never looked back.

•

He never even looked at what the stall sold, but he was drawn back to it that evening, when the market was fairly deserted. 

The stall was old, cracked and decrepit. It looked lame, but he moved into it still, intending to look around, even if it was empty.

To his surprise it wasn’t. The owner hadn’t packed up anything, leaving things scattered everywhere.

There were books and scrolls and trinkets, statues and scarves and all manner of pots with all manner of plants. 

What kind of stall was this?

He shook his head. That didn’t matter. What mattered was- he screwed his eyes shut comically. 

That small tingling he felt, that was what he had felt earlier! That was the thing that was different and sort of familiar. It was coming from...

“Back again I see.”

He whipped around, startled. A man looked down at him and he shrank back in fright, under the counter and ready to bolt.

“Whoa there! I’m not going to hurt you, I’m just packing up,” he said, motioning around the stall.

Naruto didn’t relax one bit until the man began doing what he said he would- he started collecting the books into a pile and loading them onto a cart. “It’s best to tackle one sort of item at a time. Books are heavy and should go on the bottom.”

He was quiet after that.

Naruto had been expecting to be evicted angrily and was surprised when he wasn’t. He observed the man, wondering if he was different somehow or just didn’t know who he was.

He was an adult obviously, and he had little wrinkles at the corners of his eyes and little lines under them too. He had green eyes, which he thought were pretty, and black hair. He discreetly looked for the red and white fan, because he looked a little like the teme in his class, but there was no emblem save a geometric shape with a lion within it. Naruto decided that made sense. The hair was the only thing that was similar- the man’s face looked too different. Different cheeks, different eye shape, a different nose and mouth. He had just wanted to make sure. 

“Harry? Ron’s got the- oh, hello! I didn’t see you there,” a woman said, ducking into the stall. She was pretty, he thought, and she had hair like he’d never seen. It was wide rather than long, frizzing up and out. It didn’t detract from her appearance and he rather thought it suited her. It was brown, and so were her eyes. She had also had long, slim fingers. She smiled at him and he recognized the voice as the one from earlier that day. Wasn’t she mad?

He didn’t say anything. He wasn’t sure what to say. 

She started picking up the carvings and the candles and the odd dish and loading them into the wagon. 

Not a minute later and another one ducked in. He also just smiled at him instead of anything normal and said, “Careful, you might find some spiders under there.” He looked a little perturbed as he said that. “Spiders. They are absolutely the worst.” 

And that was it, that was all he said, no reprimands or demands to leave and not come back. Naruto was intrigued. Why were they like this? How long would this hospitality last?

The man was tall, thin, and had odd tiny spots all along his face and forearms that he could see, like someone had stuck him with a pin over and over. He had red hair and clear eyes, and Naruto liked it. It wasn’t the same muted red he’d seen occasionally around the village. It was bright and vibrant like his hair. He too had long nimble fingers and Naruto checked the black haired man. Him too; they all had similar fingers. Did it have to do with their shop? What did the shop even do?

He started collecting the pots of plants and sometimes a clock or an hourglass or some other larger trifle. 

Naruto just watched and he liked watching them work. They moved around each other without even looking; it seemed impossibly choreographed. 

Soon the stall was clear. 

“I’m sure that’s everything,” the redhead said, looking at the other two over his shoulder. “Guess we’re done.”

They smiled at him as they left, and the redhead said, “Go home soon, you shouldn’t be out after dark.”

Naruto waited until he couldn’t hear their cart nor their steps before be tried to find the tingling again.

It was gone.

Disappointed and even more curious, he wondered about it.

That night he forgot all about it as he scrubbed himself in his apartment, planning a prank for the man who had been pelting him with rotten vegetables for the past week. 

•

It was a little more than a year later when he went down that way again. It wasn’t snowing, since flurries couldn’t be called snow, but there was a decent amount of the white powdery substance on the sides of the streets and slush on them. 

He was cold, rubbing his arms as he wandered. People were too busy trying to finish their work to get back inside to bother with him, and he was just fine with that.

He felt the tingling as he passed the stall, and he stopped, suddenly remembering the strange trio. The tingling turned into a warm buzzing that made him draw near.

He stealthily creeped behind the stall, mindful to not disturb the banners and give himself away.

There was the lady, sitting and drinking from a teacup, a book in hand. She turned the page, oblivious.

He ducked behind a rather large and viney plant. Ensuring he was hidden and had an escape route, he concentrated on the feeling. 

He didn’t know how long he sat there, focusing, but he prodded at it best he could. The feeling seemed...

It wasn’t like chakra. If he didn’t know any better, he’d say it wasn’t, because chakra wasn’t anything like this. He had no way to describe it, even to himself. 

Then he tried to pull it, for the lack of a better word, just like he did with his chakra.

It stubbornly refused, moving higher, away from him.

“Hey! Don’t do that!” he whisper-yelled at it. 

He tugged harder.

It yanked itself back and there was an explosion of colorful powder and the sound of a duck.

Naruto panicked because he was certainly found out. 

The lady stood, trying to peer over the plant, moving closer to look behind it. 

Naruto tried to move but found he couldn’t. 

“Did... that was you, wasn’t it?” she asked, pulling aside the plant and looking him over. 

He tried to open his mouth, to flail his arms, to flex his toes, to move at all. 

The lady looked like she had understood something. 

“Oh! Oh that’s right, the defenses, I completely forgot-“

She started rolling down the curtains on the stall, signifying it was closed. 

Naruto struggled harder.

Once she was finished she pulled out a stick.

“Now please don’t panic. This might be a surprise to you, but we’re the same, see? The defenses freeze anyone who preforms a spell and isn’t registered in the wards. I never imagined we’d find a child!” 

She wove the stick about, chanting something eerie and foreign. There was a sizzling, a crackling, and he was free. 

Naruto was wide eyed and half tempted to escape, but he remembered their kindness, or at least the lack of hostility. And what she had said; it seemed impossible that he’d have found someone who was like him, to accept him and yet- “What do ya mean you’re like me?” he asked, heart pounding.

The lady’s eyes widened. She glanced around and crouched. “Later. It’s a secret, so please don’t tell anyone what you’ve seen me do. Does- are your parents available? You’ll be included of course, but knowing might put their minds at ease about a few things.”

Naruto puffed up defiantly. “I don’t have ‘em. And I don’t need ‘em.”

The lady paused. “Ah. While I disagree with you, I suppose we have something more pressing to talk about at the moment.” She bit her lip. 

“When my friends and I come to this village we stay with our friend. It’s best we talk there.”

Naruto was apprehensive. “They probably won’ let me in, believe it.” 

The lady smiled. “I’m sure he will. We could head there now, if you’d like.”

Naruto had never been given an opportunity like this, not by an adult. How did he know she was being truthful? But how would he ever find someone to accept him if he never took that chance? He had to believe. 

“Sure.”

She smiled. “Right. I’ll just pack all this then-“

“W-wait! I didn’t think- you don’ have ta do that,” Naruto said embarrassedly. He hadn’t realized she’d close her stall! The lady just laughed.

“Oh it’s no trouble. See?”

She waved her stick and all the items in the stall moved, flying and hopping into the cart in the back as Naruto watched, gaping.

“Wow! That’s so cool, believe it! Can you teach me to do that?”

He wasn’t expecting her agree and much less to say, “We will. Levitation is one of the first things we teach our kind.” 

“Our... our kind?” he repeated, head spinning. 

“I’ll explain soon. Shall we go?”

•

**Author's Note:**

> Title from the FNaF song Freaks. Say what you will, the song artists are dedicated and the music is great. <3
> 
> I’ve read things about the formatting being finicky when posted on mobile, so I’m wary of that...


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